MovieChat Forums > The Birds (1963) Discussion > I read yesterday in a Hitchcock biograph...

I read yesterday in a Hitchcock biography that he initially wanted The Birds to be a murder mystery. How the hell would that turn out?

posted 2 years ago by Horrorlover656 (36)
2 replies | jump to latest

I could imagine it being like this:- Someone's murdered in a particular place but we have no idea about the murderer or the weapon, except that they mutilate their victims. We can place some out of control birds in the background shots(think of the aviary store at the beginning). Maybe place a certain 'wrong man' as the red herring, but it turns out the birds are the real killers when he gets killed at the same location.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

I've actually read several murder mysteries that are set during a natural disaster or nature-related crisis, where a murder happens just before a hurricane or during a drought, and as the suspense in the story increases, nature lends a hand by making her characters horribly uncomfortable, or actively endangering them. And the finale confrontation between the hero and the murderer happens as the a storm reaches peak violence or the flood hits, whatever.

Some of these books have been very good, Hitchcock could have done something along those lines with birds freaking out en masse. But I'm glad he didn't.

[–] OnanTheBarbarian (11952) 2 years ago

Nah, that would have missed the whole point of a war between man and nature. There's something poignant about birds in a mysterious instinctual rebellion against man. Though sadly we know nature doesn't work like that.